PARIS, April 19 (Reuters) - France is open to talking with
any Muslim movement abroad that renounces violence, Foreign
Minister Alain Juppe said on Tuesday, signalling a policy shift
in the face of popular revolts across the Middle East.

France has warned about confusion and difficulty in the
NATO bombing campaign against troops loyal to Muammar Gaddafi in
Libya while renewing calls for a political solution to the
two-month-old civil war.

The policy change -- which breaks with a precedent of
supporting Western-friendly Arab leaders as a bulwark against
Islamic extremism -- suggests France wants to build early ties
with political groups that could take power in some Middle East
states once the dust settles from political upheaval.
"We are willing to talk to everyone," Juppe told a group of
journalists in Paris. "Let us speak to everyone, let us speak to
the Muslim Brotherhood."

Western countries including France have long held a
suspicious view of popular Islamic movements like the Muslim
Brotherhood, which traces its roots to Islamist ideology born in
Egypt -- partly as a result of warnings by government leaders in
countries where those movements have taken root.

The Brotherhood has become the biggest opposition force in
Egypt ahead of free and fair elections planned following the
February downfall of autocratic President Hosni Mubarak.

Explaining the policy shift, Juppe said France had been
duped by leaders who made Muslim movements out as the devil.

"We believed them and now we can see the result," he said,
referring to the slowness of France's reaction to budding
popular revolts in Tunisia and Egypt late last year.

In a sign of renewed warmth, President Nicolas Sarkozy will
meet the head of Libya's rebel opposition, Mustafa Abdel Jalil,
in Paris on Wednesday after being the first Western leader to
recognize the rebel movement.

NEW GAME: DEMOCRACY OVER STABILITY

France was long seen as a friend to Arab peoples due to
criticism of Israeli policy under the late President Charles de
Gaulle, the sheltering of late Palestine Liberation Organisation
leader Yasser Arafat and opposition to the 2003 invasion of
Iraq. France has since dispensed with this image.

Sarkozy has been an open supporter of Israel and took a
so-called "pragmatic" position with regard to autocratic Arab
leaders like deposed Tunisian president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali,
who was often described in France as a moderate reformer.

France's new diplomatic tone suggests Sarkozy is favouring
democratic aspirations -- and the hope of forming ties with a
new generation of Arab leaders -- over stability.

"The fact we favoured stability brought by authoritarian
regimes proves turned out not to be a good option because in the
end, the stability disappeared," a French diplomat said,
speaking on the condition of anonymity.

A stronger accent on democratic aspirations is likely to
please the United States, as long as it does not come at the
expense of France's support of Israel. "It's very much along the
lines of what we'd like to hear," a Western diplomat said.

Many Muslims in France have been angered by a ban on
full-face veils introduced by Sarkozy as well as a recent
government debate on secularism in French society.

"Alain Juppe is indeed trying to rebuild a positive image of
France in the Arab world and in the hearts and minds of Arabs
everywhere," said Pascal Boniface, a researcher at the Institute
of International and Strategic Relations.